Persian Literary Studies Journal (PLSJ)

Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn-Winter 2012

ISSN: 2557-2322
pp. 111- 114

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THE ARENA OF LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM
1300-1350 A. H.
_1300 - 1350 .lx _,>I .. <u. ls
By Mostafa Sediqi. Shiraz: Navid-e Shiraz, 2011. 392 pp.
The Arena is an attempt to pin down the history of the dawn of modern literary
criticism in Persian. The period covered by the book, which is roughly
equivalent to 1920-1970, is the time, as the author believes, when both the
theory and the practice of literary criticism diverged from classical Persian
traditions and underwent huge changes under foreign, mostly European,
influences. Before 1920 no literary criticism existed in Iran except for the
pieces known as tazkarehshistories, usually composed by a single author, of
poets and mystics which more often than not almost exclusively undertook to
record the highlights of their liveswhich Sediqi takes to be no more than
flawed tries that without considering the distinctive features of each poet or
each era made usually valueless generalizations using clichd phrases (17).
However, the sociohistorical turbulence at the beginning of the fourteenth
century AH along with higher access to overseas thought laid a new path and
made it possible for literary criticism in its modern sense to emerge. This latter
the book tries to encapsulate.
Sediqi does not provide a diachronically-ordered anthology of the literary
criticism produced in the period, but rather writes a synchronic history. As a
result, he organizes the influential critical writings of the time according to their
origin and analyzes their contribution according to their critical leanings. He
detects three main gateways through which modern criticism flourished in Iran:
studies of Persian literature by non-Iranians, similar studies by Iranians, and
112 Persian Literary Studies Journal (PLSJ)
theoretical books translated into Persian. In similar fashion three trends of
literary critical theory and practice are detected: social, psychoanalytical, and
linguistic approaches. The Arena is thus structured in a manner to efficiently
present these: it consists of three main chapters, besides the preface and the
introduction: The Context of the Formation of Theory and Criticism, The
Approaches, and Criticism in Practice. Each chapter is divided into three
sections, and each section into three parts: an introduction, followed by the
scrutiny of usually one or two important works of each of the few authors the
section coversthis in turn includes (1) introduction of the author, (2) general
perspective, and (3) textual analysisand wrapped up by an afterword.
The first chapter deals mainly with the important sources of modern
criticism in Persian and is sub-divided into three sections: Non-Iranian
Scholars, Iranian-Scholars, and Translated Works. Non-Iranian Scholars covers
the contribution of Indian Shibli Nomani, British Orientalist Edward Granville
Browne, and Czech Orientalist Jan Rypka. A study of the fourth volume of
Nomanis Sher al-ajam (Persian Poetry) is presented along with how it
criticizes the classical traditions of criticism and how it focuses more on the
aesthetic as well as mimetic aspects of poetry. Brownes A Literary History of
Persia, as the title is telling, treats literature as, one could say, a mirror held to
social and historical events, emphasizing such themes as patriotism. It also
captures the growing public audience and its effect on the new poetry. Rypkas
History of Iranian Literature is highly significant since it is among the first
tries at writing a literary history without disregarding the nuances specific to
each era as a result of certain social conditions. Rypka also constantly keeps an
eye to European literature for comparative purposes. In the end, Sediqi
summarizes the main critical trends in the work of these non-Iranian scholars of
this significant era in which modern criticism started to emerge in Persian.
The next section, Iranian Scholars, captures the contribution of Lotfali
Suratgar and Abdolhossein Zarrinkub. These, Sediqi informs us, are mainly
important because they are among the first to base their critical views on
philosophical ideas. Suratgars Sokhansanji (Rhetoric), employing something
of comparative literature, tries to signify the importance of classical Persian
literature by means of modern European criticism. However, he believes these
ideas are not completely applicable in the case of Persian literature because
they are not smooth enough. Zarrinkubs Naqd-e adabi (Literary Criticism)
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can be said to be much more advanced; it introduces into Persian modern
criticism and critical approaches, history of criticism in Iran, Greece, and
Arabian countries for the first time. Sediqis critique ends this section.
The last section of the first chapter, Translated Works, analyzes the
influence of Tolstoys What is Art?, Aristotles Poetics, Muhammad Mandurs
Al-Naqd al-Minhaji Inda al-Arab (trans. as Dar naqd va adab, On Criticism
and Literature), and Sartres What is Literature?. Tolstoys idea of committed
art, which was in line with the social conditions of Iran at that time, Zarrinkubs
call for a return to Aristotle, Mandurs comparative work, and Sartres
existential position are all presented. In the end, Sediqi presents a chain of
comparisons among all these theorists along with Plato.
The second chapter, The Approaches, following the overall structure of the
book, is likewise divided into three sections; each section tries to analyze the
contribution of one or more authors through whose translated works one
approach of literary criticism was introduced into Persian. The first section is
devoted to the social approach which was appeared under the influence of Ernst
Fischers The Necessity of Art. A Marxist himself, Fischer provides Iranian
literary and critical society of the time with exactly what it needed: a Socialistic
approach to art. The work of Amirhossein Ariyanpur with its emphasis on the
interaction between society and art is also of importance.
The next section deals with the psychoanalytic approach. First, of course,
comes Freud. Bergson, Jung, Adler, and I. A. Richards are also discussed.
Sediqi does acknowledge the theoretical differences of these theorists in his
discussion. He also provides criss-cross discussions of Freudism, Marxism,
Feminism, and Sartre.
The last section of the second chapter in completely similar fashion deals
with the linguistic approach. A short survey is given of the books in Persian
which for the first time presented a methodological framework of language-
oriented literary criticism; these started from classical philology through
Saussurean linguistics to Jakobson and Martinet. The emphasis on form, the
self-containment of a work of art, and other aspects of this approach is
discussed in detail.
The last chapter, Criticism in Practice, completes the previous chapter in
that it brings together a pile of critical instances which follow the theoretical
frameworks summarized in the previous chapter. The first section presents
114 Persian Literary Studies Journal (PLSJ)
social criticism of mostly sher-e no (new poetry) which Nima Yushij founded
in Persian. The gist of criticisms of this kind on the poetries of Nima Yushij,
Akhavan, Shamlu, Sepehri, Kasrai, and others are given as examples. The
second section, focused on the linguistic approach in practice, deals mostly
with criticism on Ahmadreza Ahmadi, Yadollah Royai, and Manuchehr Atashi
whose poetry best correspond to form-oriented theories. The last section both of
this chapter and the book presents psychoanalytical criticism on, mainly, Nima
Yushij, Forugh Farrokhzad, and Sepehri.
What Sediqi provides readers with is a history which was lacking before.
As is mentioned several times in the book, he did not first evaluate the
criticisms to see whether he should include them in the book; he has included
all that which made a difference in modern criticism in Persian, even those
which could be deemed as theoretically flawed. As such, The Arena is a reliable
source to historicize and contextualize later studies. However, it does not need
to be mentioned that for this last purpose more similar studies and sources are
needed to provide a plurality of perspectives into this critical moment in Persian
literary theory and criticism.

Sina Mansouri-Zeyni, Shiraz University
Persian Literary Studies Journal (PLSJ)
Vol. 1, No. 1, Autumn-Winter 2012
ISSN: 2557-2322
pp. 115- 116

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A DICTIONARY OF ANIMALS IN PERSIAN LITERATURE
_.l ,>I > _I.l; <l. c.es
By Manizheh Abdolahi Shiraz: Pazhuhandeh, 2002. 2 Vols. 1205 pp.
This two volume book with twenty six pages of introduction on dictionaries,
encyclopaedias and animal glossaries in Persian is an invaluable help to
scholars of Persian language and literature. The book includes 74 animals
which have appeared in Persian language and literature. The animals presented
here are taken directly from lines of poetry or prose. The book covers important
texts ranging from Avesta to books at the end of seventh century A. H.
Imaginary or mythological animals are missing in this book. The entries start
with GhH [deer] and end with yHz [panther].
Each entry consists of five sections; the first section is devoted to pre-
Islamic texts in which the roots of twhe entry in ancient Persian texts are
discussed. The second section is on theological and Islamic texts. The third
section is devoted to tales and stories; the fourth section to aesthetics and
figures of speech in which each animal appears; the fifth section is on aspects
not mentioned in the previous four sections. Each section is subdivided into
different parts, for example section one consists of origins and Avestan and
Pahlavi texts. Section two comprises the Quran and commentaries, Hadith and
tradition, and legal traditions which are presented in each entry.
The richness of material in this book is outstanding and supported by lines
of poetry and prose from varied texts. Some entries cover many pages as they
are mentioned in different texts: GhH consists of 67 pages and is obviously the
favourite with poets. There are many references in religious texts as well as
medical books to GhH. otor [camel] with 62 pages comes next.
116 Persian Literary Studies Journal (PLSJ)
One interesting aspect the book points to is the ups and downs of the
significance of some animals throughout the literary history of Iran. Animals
such as kh,k [pig], sag [dog] and karkas [vulture] lose their importance after
the Arab invasion for the obvious religious reasons while ir [lion], babr [tiger]
and palang [panther] gain prominence in the texts.
Under the entry asb [horse] it is mentioned that this word has not changed
that much since ancient times. In Avesta this word is mentioned as aspa and in
Sanskrit it is asva. Some scholars consider the root as ak or as meaning swift-
footed pace.

Farideh Pourgiv, Shiraz University